[boostednut]

Also Keep in mind. This is a discussion about drop in pistons. That's clearly a bang for buck mindset upgrade. So that's what this discussion should be towards improving.

[Drsagacity]

Originally Posted by boostednut

Also Keep in mind. This is a discussion about drop in pistons. That's clearly a bang for buck mindset upgrade. So that's what this discussion should be towards improving.

Agreed. One problem. The fast list doesn’t seem to support your theory. Reality is very few people really modify their cars with significant performance improvements. For those of us that do, our modified SS will dominate 99.9% of the ZL1’s out there...could a ZL1 theoretically be faster? Sure. You can make any car fast if you want to.

For me, the Camaro is my toy car...My daily driver is substantially more expensive and no, I won’t modify that car. I hope you demonstrate your point by getting some track times with your modified ZL1. Look forward to seeing you on the fast list.

Back to this thread, I will get a cam and upgrade the fuel system, but may have these pistons added at the same time. I might even add the ZL1 front fascia at some point, not sure. Back to regularly scheduled programming, would love to know more about the potential on drop in pistons...because as it relates to my fun car, I am more of a doer than a theory guy.

[laynlo15]

I personally wouldn't do the drop in pistons. You need to pull the motor and do it right. Its gonna cost more but that's the way to do it. I would leave the stock set up in and make as much hp with that as you can. If you piss one of the cylinders off with too much boost then pull it, stroke it and build it right. Just my 2 cents after 50 years of drag racing and modifying everything imaginable.

[Drsagacity]

Originally Posted by laynlo15

I personally wouldn't do the drop in pistons. You need to pull the motor and do it right. Its gonna cost more but that's the way to do it. I would leave the stock set up in and make as much hp with that as you can. If you piss one of the cylinders off with too much boost then pull it, stroke it and build it right. Just my 2 cents after 50 years of drag racing and modifying everything imaginable.

See, why do you have to go being logical and rain on my parade. I went down the path of waiting until it breaks (with a Vette) and the piston got really pissed off and also cracked the block...if the motor is being pulled anyway then the question might be, better to go with a different type of forged pistons instead of the drop in?

[ShizzySupra]

Originally Posted by boostednut

Also Keep in mind. This is a discussion about drop in pistons. That's clearly a bang for buck mindset upgrade. So that's what this discussion should be towards improving.

Umm. I HAVE done the drop in piston set....unlike you. All that I said was most people do a cam and at that point you have 90% of the motor apart... you then gave an entire novel on why my build was “stupid”. *eye roll*

Cunningham has done 4 Gen 6’s with the drop in sets. Cordes has done around the same number that I know of. Vengeance has done multiple Gen V motors (vette and camaros) with their piston kit. (The ones that I know about.) Most of the vehicles I am referring to are easily holding 800+whp.

A hone can be done in the car. Its not the best way to do it but its doable even Ryne has stated this. Although the thought of a gen 6 camaro being a “budget build” kind of car is funny. They are just expensive to mod period.

[misterjaayy]

Originally Posted by Drsagacity

See, why do you have to go being logical and rain on my parade. I went down the path of waiting until it breaks (with a Vette) and the piston got really pissed off and also cracked the block...if the motor is being pulled anyway then the question might be, better to go with a different type of forged pistons instead of the drop in?

This is my biggest concern. I don’t want to crack the block then have to shell out even more money for a new long block when I feel like I can nip the problem in the butt and just go forged from the beginning. Am I missing something here? Or just a gamble of if the block will crack when a piston or rod fails?

[boostednut]

Originally Posted by ShizzySupra

Umm. I HAVE done the drop in piston set....unlike you. All that I said was most people do a cam and at that point you have 90% of the motor apart... you then gave an entire novel on why my build was “stupid”. *eye roll*

Cunningham has done 4 Gen 6’s with the drop in sets. Cordes has done around the same number that I know of. Vengeance has done multiple Gen V motors (vette and camaros) with their piston kit. (The ones that I know about.) Most of the vehicles I am referring to are easily holding 800+whp.

A hone can be done in the car. Its not the best way to do it but its doable even Ryne has stated this. Although the thought of a gen 6 camaro being a “budget build” kind of car is funny. They are just expensive to mod period.

I said that building an ss up by paying a shop is stupid in comparison to buying a zl1. You took it personally bud. I didn't say you couldn't diy.

There's a big difference between "budget" and paying a shop nearly 10 grand for pistons and a cam.

I don't take to people trying to make e penis competitions on forums because it takes everyone one step back. If you can cut that shit out then we're cool. This is the internet. All we can do is exchange ideas. So make them worth reading or stfu

[exxit]

Originally Posted by boostednut

I said that building an ss up by paying a shop is stupid in comparison to buying a zl1. You took it personally bud. I didn't say you couldn't diy.

There's a big difference between "budget" and paying a shop nearly 10 grand for pistons and a cam.

I don't take to people trying to make e penis competitions on forums because it takes everyone one step back. If you can cut that shit out then we're cool. This is the internet. All we can do is exchange ideas. So make them worth reading or stfu

Lol relax gents....

Some shit money (don't mean this in a derogatory or hater way) and can easily afford to drop 75k on a fully loaded and marked up ZL1 in their specific config, then almost same day take it to the near by speed shop or Hennessy for example and dump another 20k into it making it stupid fast.

And some like stepping in under 40k and building up to about the same power for less.

Just a financial situation/preference thing. Nothing to really bicker or argue about imo.

Absolutely no reason for anyone to shit on someone else's build here. That's silly on its own imo.



I'm really into the bang for your buck aspect of dropins. I've been and will remain on the fence because I don't have a single shred of evidence that they don't work yet. I still know too many people who completely lose their mind when you mention putting internals in while the motor is inside the car. To top it off the shops themselves don't agree 100%. Cunningham will sell you a set of rods and pistons for about 2400 (outdated price to lazy to google, may be cheaper now), and I know of a few that are running that setup as we speak making about 800ish all day, hard driving. Then we have vengence who word for word says "when we do rods we would balance the motor"

I guess it comes down to, how are these people's builds holding up after someone put dropins, with the motor in, into them. Are there any that have had failure that we could assume was from this sort of part? Lots of variables, not too many answers, also not a whole lot of people willing to be test monkeys loll. Take this as my opinion and nothing else

[RideZX6R]

It's been said many times that the reason most people have piston failures in the first place is ring gap that is inconsistent and/or too tight...

After some discussion with a few people in the community - most agree that if people would simply re-ring the stock pistons to an acceptable gap and with consistency - it's reasonable to think the problems will go away... As many LT1 cars have made over 700whp without issues (likely the consistent, non-tightened ring gap cars)...

Problem is... It's easy to reason that if you're gonna pull each piston anyway to reset ring gap... so why not just spend $1200 and put in drop-ins instead? The labor is essentially the same, for much better reward and much less risk. This is especially true if you're having a shop do the work - chances are you have the $1200 t do this because you're already spending $10k+

Best bang for the buck would be to do your own labor, and reset the ring gap on the stock pistons and likely be fine for a while... Much like many things in life, this isn't certain either (even if it is likely)

[laynlo15]

It rains on somebodies parade in Missouri quite often, but since you live in Illinois you should be just fine.

[ShizzySupra]

Look I get it, they are a semi-budget option but at the end of the day it's an expensive platform to mod (ZL1 or SS). To me the biggest advantage of the drop-ins ISN'T the cost it's the compression drop. Especially if you plan on not being reliant on E85 (and it's associated increase in fuel system cost/upkeep/availability).

So far for drop in pistons ONLY I haven't heard a single one reporting any failure. The Corvette guys use them regularly in 800+ whp set-ups. The stock rods are good to go past 800 wtq unless you have some weird higher revving set-up. For my purposes we chose to have the bottom end balanced and used aftermarket rod bearings with my "drop in" rods/pistons.

The compression drop to me is a better safety net.

[Drsagacity]

Originally Posted by boostednut

I said that building an ss up by paying a shop is stupid in comparison to buying a zl1. You took it personally bud. I didn't say you couldn't diy.

I don’t diy but once I add drop in pistons, rods and rings and the upgraded fuel system, I might be fractionally higher than buying a new ZL1. I will be much more upgradable and faster at that point.

If I had the ZL1, I would still need to upgrade the internals, change the blower...and since I would need to upgrade the internals, I would change the cam...I guess I would say, the car is just a starting spot and depending on what you want to do with the car, it’s all about the same.

At the end, cars are not investments, they are for fun. Maybe I will do the Z next, but at that base price, I probably move back to a Vette and keep my Camaro SS convertible that will smoke the ZL1 for the fun with kids in back seat.

Probably the decision on “stupid vs not-stupid” is a personal thing based on discretionary income. Again, looking forward to seeing someone on the ZL1 fast list proving you right...maybe that will cause me to change my opinion.

[parish8]

I am running the drop in piston and rod combo. Along with a cam, dod delete, vvt lock, head studs, little stuff and a couple of tools I have $4050 in my motor. With that gpi set I would have more like $3200 in the motor. So far I would guess I am up around 900hp. I will actual numbers soon.

$4k for a motor that should hold 1000hp seems reasonable to me. My other option was to just order a fully built 416 from someone and spend $12k-$20k depending on who you go with. Of course you could do a budget 416, there are a lot of ways to go.

I am not afraid to break something and have plenty of turbo and fuel. I will likely find the limit of my $4k engine eventually and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was 1100+hp

[Drsagacity]

Originally Posted by parish8

I am running the drop in piston and rod combo. Along with a cam, dod delete, vvt lock, head studs, little stuff and a couple of tools I have $4050 in my motor. With that gpi set I would have more like $3200 in the motor. So far I would guess I am up around 900hp. I will actual numbers soon.

$4k for a motor that should hold 1000hp seems reasonable to me. My other option was to just order a fully built 416 from someone and spend $12k-$20k depending on who you go with. Of course you could do a budget 416, there are a lot of ways to go.

I am not afraid to break something and have plenty of turbo and fuel. I will likely find the limit of my $4k engine eventually and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was 1100+hp

Did you do the work yourself? What do you estimate for the installation?